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Thursday, August 22, 2013

First they came for the saucy-sloganed panties...

Gen Con: The Best Four Days in Gaming! is dedicated to providing a harassment-free Event experience for everyone, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, religion, or affiliation. We do not tolerate harassment of convention participants in any form. - GenCon No Harassment policy

In this case, it turns out that one of the vendors at GenCon, Belle & Blade, decided to add some women's panties to their usual stock of war movies. What do panties have to do with gaming? Beats the heck out of me, but then again vendors at conventions sell all sorts of things that to my mind have nothing to do with the theme of the convention itself. But sell them they did, and the panties bore slogans like "I could use a little sexual harassment" and "Get me drunk... and we'll see."

Charming.

According to the vendor, "the response to them was overwhelmingly favorable even at GenCon." Okay. Takes all kinds. Just because it's not my cup of mead doesn't mean that I get to ban it, right?

Wrong. Naturally, someone, in the interests of protecting womynhood disagreed, and complained to the GenCon staff. Certain corners of Twitter went berserk, and certain blogs decided to complain as well (even going so far as to call it "rapey"). The offending garments were moved to a position inside the booth, where they were not visible to casual traffic. Eventually, however, someone still complained, and the according to vendor, after what was apparently a civil conversation with the complainer...

"...after the gentleman and I had discussed everything, I again asked him which ones really bother him, and he pointed out the two I mentioned above. I walked over, took both down and put them in a box. I then said, I am not required to do so, but you made an adult presentation and even though I do not agree, I will respect you feelings and remove those two. I believe we all must play nice." (from a private email, posted with permission)

Now, I am certainly not in favor of harassment, as I have stated clearly on previous occasions. No means no, and if you can't process that, you have no place being out and about in society, let alone in a fandom or gaming covention. Period.

Is she even wearing panties?If so, do they have any slogans?

The question becomes, however, whether is it "harassment" or "advocating date rape" to sell women's clothing that implies sexual promiscuity on the part of the wearer? I would say it is not, because no one is forcing women to purchase or wear the slogans.

What this is, is another example of slut shaming by the forces of the feminist ultra-left. I remember a time when being a feminist meant being in favor of sex. You know, that whole "sexual revolution" of the 1960's? But now, sex has somehow been twisted into something bad, something that The Patriarchy inflicts on womyn to keep them oppressed. As Camille Paglia recently said in an interview at Salon.com:

"I am of course delighted that the fanatical puritan feminists of the anti-pornography crusade of the 1980s have been forced to eat dirt! Their arrogant success in pushing Playboy and Penthouse out of the convenience stores (a campaign where they allied with conservative Christian groups) evaporated when the Web went big in the ‘90s. ... Their shameless partisanship eventually doomed those Stalinist feminists, who were trampled by the pro-sex feminist stampede of the early ‘90s (in which I am proud to have played a vocal role). That insurgency began in San Francisco in the mid-‘80s and went national throughout the following decade. "

At least she is wearing a veil,for the sake of modesty.

Alas, those puritan feminists have returned. Now we are to believe that it's "harassment" to sell something to a woman who wants to be flirty, or sexy, or even slutty. No one is forcing them to buy it, wear it, or agree with it. For those who don't want to, they certainly have the option not to. But that's not what this is about. This is about taking away the choice from women who do want to be flirty, or sexy, or, yes, slutty. Even at a gaming convention.

And because that choice bothers a certain Politically Correct segment of the population, they think no one else should make that choice, either. Ironic, isn't it, how today's "feminists" are now on the same side of the fence as the Pat Robertsons of the world?

The photos accompanying this article are from this year's GenCon, by the way. The very same place where this "incident" occurred.